At the Sounding Edge: FreeWheeling

An introduction to audio looping software and a fun program to test drive it.

Recording and Playing Loops

Basic operation of FreeWheeling is easy. Audio input can come from a
record-enabled mixer channel, an OGG-encoded soundfile or the internal
synthesizer. The main display shows the input sound as it passes
through FreeWheeling (Figure 2). By default, four input channels are
defined with separate volume control by pressing the up or down arrow
key and the input channel number (1,2,3,4). Press a QWERTY key to record
a segment and then press it again to play the recording as a loop. Repeat
this basic procedure with other keys, using any previous loop as real-time
accompaniment. The u key deletes the last recorded loop, Space+[key]
deletes the loop at [key] and Alt-Space deletes all current loops. F8
saves the last recorded loop as an OGG file, while F7 saves an entire collection
of loops as a scene. Synth patches, audio loops and scenes all are
selectable from FreeWheeling's browser. The b key rotates the browser
through its loadable types, the keypad + and - keys scroll the available
items for each type and the Enter key selects and loads an item.

Figure 2. Recording into FreeWheeling

Recording may be freestyle, timed to a prerecorded loop or coordinated
with FreeWheeling's metronome. A tap tempo feature provides a neat way
to set the metronome. During playback, loops can be toggled on and off
by pressing the associated key. Loops can be muted and unmuted with
the keypad - and + keys, plus the loop key. Volume control is available
per I/O channel and per loop, giving the performer finer control over the
overall balance.

I've recorded some simple examples demonstrating these features and placed
them on-line
here.
They're not especially musically valuable, but they should give you an idea of
what can be done at even FreeWheeling's most basic levels.

Customized Freewheeling

Now we go a few steps further in our explorations and look into the
.fweelin.rc file. This file is an XML-based configuration file through
which FreeWheeling's features can be customized extensively, including
its interface layout, keyboard bindings, MIDI control assignments
and more. You'll need to spend a little time to learn the configuration
syntax, but the file, which is also FreeWheeling's primary
documentation, is written clearly and is definitely worth the effort.

The easiest way to use .fweelin.rc is to change some of the default
values, restart the program and check out what changes were made. For
example, I changed this setting :

The next example presents a more interesting use of .fweelin.rc, binding
MIDI key numbers to toggle loop recording and playback. First we go to
the Variables section and set the noterange variable to the desired
range of MIDI note numbers, in this instance, the lowest octave of my
CZ101 MIDI keyboard:

The video-show-loop event defines the range of loops displayed. Each
recorded loop is assigned a unique ID number, loopid, created by
summing the value of the received MIDI note number and the value of the
loopid_pianostart variable. The pianostart variable also is defined in
the Variables section:

<declare var="VAR_loopid_pianostart" type="int" init="350"/>

Figure 3 shows off FreeWheeling recording an audio input while playing
back loops assigned to the MIDI keyboard layout. When I press the lowest
key on my CZ101, a loop is recorded and assigned to the corresponding
key in FreeWheeling's MIDI layout. Pressing the key again plays the
assigned loop, as seen in Figure 3.

If a MIDI key press occurs that equals a note number defined within
VAR_noterange, then the conditions are met and a trigger-loop event takes
place, either recording or playing a loop on the MIDI key layout.

As I said, it takes some effort to get your mind around FreeWheeling's
customization options and syntax, but it does start to make sense and
it does result in a highly personalized instrument.

Comment viewing options

Okay, I just want to say I struggled with understanding the concept of this software for a while. Aside from a couple AVIs that I couldn't play from my crippled system, I couldn't find much help with this program.

I found this article and had the program working great within a matter of minutes. I hope this article stays on the web for a long long time because otherwise there would be no hope for neophytes like myself.

I'm curious why you would compare the two programs. ReZound is an excellent editor for soundfiles, not a looping sampler for live use. Have you employed ReZound in a manner similar to FW's working method ?

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